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IX.

DESULTORY WORK.

"Here a little and there a little."-Is. xxviii. 10.

Who hath despised the day of small things ?"-—ZECH. iv. 10.

"A spark is a molecule of matter, yet may it kindle the world:
Vast is the mighty ocean, but drops have made it vast.
Despise not thou a small thing, either for evil or for good;
Commit thy trifles unto God, for to Him nothing is trivial;
And it is but the littleness of men that seeth no greatness in trifles.
All things are infinite in parts, and the moral is as the material,
Neither is anything vast, but it is compacted of atoms.

If pestilence stalk through the land, ye say, this is God's doing,
Is it not also His doing, when an aphis creepeth on a rosebud ?
A thing is great or little only to a mortal's thinking,
And happy and wise is the man to whose thought existeth not a trifle."
MARTIN TUpper.

DURING the waiting season, while God withholds active work from the believer, He often gives little services to do for Him, which we venture to class under the head of desultory work,-work that may happen one day, and not another, "here a little, and there a little ;" and which is often left undone, just because it is desultory, and apparently so small in its results. Many, however, are now in heaven who would never have known the way there had it not been for the religious book lent by a neighbour; or the persuasive letter penned in a distant land; or the awakening sermon listened to at the entreaty of

a Christian friend; or the tract found in a railway station; or the short, sudden, but heaven-heard and heaven-answered prayer; or the timely word spoken by the way side; or the hymn lovingly taught to the little child; or the striking anecdote treasured up and repeated; or the pointed text of Scripture that went into the heart sharpened as a two-edged sword.

The very crumbs of work that fall from the Master's hand, the fragments that remain from what He gives His strong ones,-the "corners of time" snatched from the more secular work of every day, ought to be treasured by the Christian. They whose time is much at the disposal of others, or who are much in the habit of travelling from place to place, and therefore peculiarly fitted for a "wayside witnessing for Christ," (as it is called in an admirable little manual for travellers,*) need to consider deeply the importance of seizing all opportunities for desultory work. How well it would be if each in going through the world were to remember what the old writer said of life ;-that it consisted of two heaps, a large one of sorrow, and a small one of happiness, and whoever carried the very smallest atom from the one to the other, did God a service; much more those who are instrumental in any way, in leading or helping one precious soul from the pit of eternal misery, to the home of eternal joy. Let us take heed, then, to be

* A Word for the Way; or, Hints to Travellers and Tourists.

faithful in the smallest things, or how can we expect to rule over ten cities ?-(Luke xix. 17.) Let us watch over the little cloud, from which, though no larger than a man's hand, great showers of blessing may be poured down. Let us nurture the tiny seed, which may spring up into the branching tree; for though our words and deeds may seem slight and powerless things, yet

"No act falls fruitless; none can tell
How vast its power may be,

Nor what results unfolded dwell
Within it silently."

Like the rain drop of a million years ago, whose fossil steps are traced in the sandstone, so will the smallest of our actions leave traces behind for good or evil-if not visible in time—yet clearly visible in Eternity.

X.

PRAISING WORK.

"Thou shalt rejoice in every good thing which the Lord thy God hath given unto thee."-DEUT. xxvi. 11.

"For what shall I praise thee, my God and my King,
For what blessings the tribute of gratitude bring?
For the spirits which heightened my days of delight,
And the slumbers that fell on my pillow by night?
For this I should praise thee; but if only for this,
I should leave half untold the donation of bliss.
I thank thee for sickness, and sorrow, and care,
For the thorns I have gathered, the anguish I bear,
For nights of anxiety, watchings, and tears,

A present of pain, a perspective of fears.

I praise thee, I bless thee, my King and my God,
For the good and the evil thy hand hath bestowed"

"A cheerful expecter of the best, hath a fountain of joy within him ; Ask for good and have it; for thy Friend would see thee happy." MARTIN TUPPER.

LIKE the disagreeable Christian, the gloomy Christian is an anomaly in grace. What a sad spectacle! a Christian who makes the young feel old, the old feel older, the sad feel sadder, who confirms the worldly in their worldliness! Christians, however, are never gloomy because they are too religious, as the world alleges, but because they are not religious enough. That is a striking combination in 2 Tim. iii. 2, "unthankful,-unholy;" and it will ever be

found that the more thankfulness, the more holiness, the more happiness. Rise up, then, oh, believer! from your despondency; emerge from the dark shadow; do no more dishonour to your joy-loving Lord. Your heart ought to be as the glad welling fount in the midst of the fresh green grass. Let this rejoicing, fertilizing work be yours; it is the portion of the vineyard most neglected by the Lord's labourers, and yet it is of exceeding value, for "he that offereth praise glorifieth God." An eloquent modern writer has spoken to us of "the duty of delight," and it is a duty peculiarly appropriate to the Christian, upon whom all rich gifts and sweet influences are showered by a reconciled Father. Beautiful are the white and crimson clouds that "lie cradled near the setting sun;" joyous the lark's melody, that riseth on the wings of the morning from the earth to the heavens; lovely the deep blue shadows cast by the golden sunlight; fresh and fragrant the flower of the valley, the green leaf of the forest; soothing the ripple-music of the river, and the chiming of the sea upon the shore. Go forth, then, amongst all that is rich and beautiful in nature, and thank Him,

"They tell us often to meditate in the closet, but they send us not, like Isaac, into the fields at even; they dwell on the duty of self-denial, but they exhibit not the duty of delight. . . It is not possible for a Christian man to walk across so much as a rood of the natural earth, with mind unagitated and rightly poised, without receiving strength and hope from some stone, leaf, flower, or sound, nor without a sense of a dew falling upon him out of the sky."-MODERN PAINTERS.

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